Hitcon qualifies for Defcon finals in Las Vegas

2015-03-04

Hacks in Taiwan (Hitcon) claimed second in the Boston Key Party Capture the Flag competition March 1, securing a spot among the world’s 15 best teams at the Defcon finals scheduled for August in Las Vegas.

Squaring off against 828 outfits from around the globe, Hitcon amassed 6,145 points en route to completing the 31-challenge competition in 43 hours. They finished behind top spot-getter Carnegie Mellon University’s Plaid Parliament of Pwning, which totaled 6,445 points and took 10 hours less. Third place went to U.S. outfit Samurai with 5,545 points.

The “Jeopardy” format competition was based on a metro map of Boston, with every station representing a challenge such as cryptography, leak analysis, reversing and software re-engineering. Participants were rewarded for applying creative solutions to web security and related application issues.

This is the fourth time for Boston University to stage the competition organized by its internationally renowned Information Lab and Design Space.

The result propelled the Taiwan team to eighth from 19th in the world rankings and is expected to boost member confidence as they gear up to take on defending Defcon champions PPP later this year.

According to Hitcon team leader Lee Lun-chuan, PPP’s problem-solving capabilities are impressive and illustrate the benefits of Boston University’s innovative, challenge-orientated learning environment.

“Japan and South Korea also deserve praise for establishing cutting-edge hacker training programs,” he said, adding that Taiwan should follow suit and build a better environment for cultivating the information security experts of tomorrow.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=227862&CtNode=413)